It is worth note, I specifically HATE shows that have trash endings because I get bitter I invested the emotional time to begin with. If you don’t share that specific disliking, you might find the first half worth watching!
Is this why western comics and cartoons have no story and virtually no endings? They just reboot stuff when it becomes stale and the cycle continues? It's rather subjective whether the ending of something is "bad" or not.
i like how every1 used to hale Death Note as some masterpiece when it came out but years later it obviously didn't age well and people now realize the many issues it had and that it is overall not a very good story.
@@DanielGreeneReviews Dan check the manga, it has a different ending, and 3 is too low man, if you rated every aspect if it alone it will get higher in total, as in some aspects its way high
I love everything about DN until L's death. The 2nd arc is a bit offputting for some, but I loved seeing Light without the DN interacting with L. They made a brilliant team, and it shows what kind of life Light could've had if he weren't cursed by the notebook (it's alluded to several times that the DN has some kind of power that makes you want to try it out). Makes the series that much more tragic.
I don't think the death note had any power of that sort. I think the show is sending a message about human nature: that power corrupts people. The note didn't corrupt Light through some ability, it corrupted him by simply giving him power. I mean, who wouldn't try the Death Note if they had the chance?
When I was watching I thought that the plot would go in a direction where Light basically had to uncover that he used to be Kira and when he did regain his memories he would've had this internal conflict about it since he just spent so much time fighting against himself. I feel like something like that would've been way cooler than what actually happened tbh
1:11 Honestly, the original manga creator had been quite clear on his regrets on not ending the series earlier. I could sense the bitterness from reading another manga they made. (A manga about making manga), the MC duo makes a manga that is remarkably similar to the premise of death note and in the manga, they decide to end the series early, which resulted in very successful results and explanations of why it was the right choice.
Well they wanted to end it at L's death, Danies clearly has issues with it far before that moment, so I don't think this is fully it honestly, at leasdt for him, for the general fanbase, yeah, L's death is where the actual drop off is considered.
@@darekpower When L died there was threads still hanging though which is part of why it is so surprising when it happens. I think for it to end there more would of had to of originally been different in the lead up to that moment. If that makes sense.
"I'm expecting a bit of a drop off." -Top 10 statements said right before disaster. Some anime recommendations you may want to look into: Monster - A great psychological thriller. A bit long, but worth it. Almost no 'anime-isms'. Kinda like Death Note grew up and realized it's potential. Kaiji Ultimate Survivor - High stakes gambling. If you think Squid Game didn't have a harsh enough message about capitalism, watch this. Steins;Gate - Probably the best time travel story I've seen. It's 25 episodes and takes a while to really good, but the ending is so good. Claymore (this is a manga) - Witcher, but women, in a dark-fantasy world, with shape-shifting, man-eating monsters. Keep up the good work, Daniel!
Hunter X Hunter: great overall but the magic system what really puts it over the top. Dorohedoro:the show is good but incomplete, the manga is a grimdark urban fantasy with a distinctive art style and it's finished.
On the ending SPOILERS: In the manga, it is strongly implied that Near actually used the Death Note at the end to control the person who fucked up and exposed Light, since he randomly dies in prison a short time later. Matsuda is the one that puts this all together, funnily enough
Spoilers... Are you talking about mikami. He dies right there, suicide. Not random prison. He couldn't take it that his god didn't acknowledge him when it didn't suit him. Yeah manga implied that Near used death note for that.
@@tusharjoglekar Mikami commiting suicide is an anime decision, in the manga he just surrenders and rejects Light after seeing him freak out and come off as a petulant child rather than the all-powerful God he thought he was
@@tusharjoglekar that's anime, he's talking about manga.. IIRC in the manga Mikami went to jail and he's just disappointed that Light becomes so pathetic and a god shouldn't be that.
I stopped caring about the show after L died. I just read the manga. Near is pretty bland and I got tired of Light very soon. I was pretty meh about the ending because I was so emotionally not invested by the time I read it. I didn't even think about it for years.
I feel like the greatest weakness of Death Note was it's inability to have Light fail through his own faults. From it's setup it could have been a great story along the lines of a Greek tragedy, with Light's hubris and the inherent flaws of his worldview driving him to ultimately be the orchestrator of his own downfall. Light was, at his heart, a very clever child with a very childish notion of how the world worked, and for all his intelligence he lacked experience and perspective. THAT should have been his undoing.
I don't know. Light constantly loses ground and gives stuff away because of his overconfidence and his expectation that he'll always be in control of the situation, and gets real whiny when something catches him off guard and puts him on the defensive. His downfall is just one more manifestation of this, where he basically confesses by accident with his "I win" because he was so confident everyone acted out exactly like he expected them to. Basically, he loses because he buys his own hype and thinks he's God.
@@thegodofalldragons that’s totally true, the show would basically never happen if during the second episode light was so conceited as to try to kill L, if he just let someone opposing him go with the confidence that he won’t be found out than L would never have found out that kira was in japan, if light didn’t constantly try to flex his superiority, another example is with ray pember, he confronts ray himself when there would surely be a work around but light always has to let his enemies know that he is better, not to sound like i’m praising this as the best character design and the im 14 and this is deep stuff but i think his hubris was still a potent factor in the story up until it…well it wasn’t i guess 🤷♂️
If you want a true crime cat and mouse story that doesn't drop off in the middle. (And has beautifully fleshed out characters.) Please read/watch the manga/anime Monster! You will not regret it.
@@tristanb7183 I agree! It's so grounded in reality that it's one of the rare anime/manga series that could very easily translate well into live action. I'm honestly surprised that it hasn't yet!
@@heroluka7088 Right? It's also set in the Europe so it would be really easy to find locations that mimicked those in the series. (If a western company was doing the adaptation.) And, you really wouldn't need to change the plot much. It just needs a little streamlining but the first draft is all there.
You might really appreciate the show Code Geass - not based on a manga, I found it fascinating in both character and plot and I honestly don’t know anything like it, I think Zero is one of the most dynamic and genius protagonists in anime 👽
Idk man it is epitome of bad writing and tries to do all the stuff to drag it on. It is carried by lelouch himself but sometimes his intellect is unrealistic as he had no prior military experience and somehow able to outsmart those who do. Still it had a good ending.
Terrible recommendation. Daniel hated Death Note for specifically its writing and convoluted themes. The worst thing he could do is watch Code fucking Geass next which is the KING of nonsensical writing and convoluted themes. Lelouch is a decent character, sure, but he's at the very least not superior to Light and/or L. Code Geass is the epitome of a turn-off-your-brain show, and even in that sense it fails because the mech battles are shit and boring and the big moments lose part of or all of their weight once you think about them for a bit. I do kind of respect the show for how bombastic it is and how it's kind of an enigma (and yeah, there's nothing quite like it), but it's still utter dog shit. I don't mean to be too aggressive, I just really hate Code Geass and I don't think it's a good choice for him.
Well, the reason why everyone likes it is because of the wild ride that you go on before a major plot decison takes place, and just forgetting the show after that. I guess it is our community's fault as a whole, But hey, the first half was pretty good right?
It went from a case study for any writer for its positives of the part you are talking about to literally its opposite after that, and for me, it became a show to binge watch in my free time
@@DanielGreeneReviews Just so you know, even the authors don't like what they did with the story. The issue is that the magazine this story was published is Shounen Jump (which is focused on teens and older kids), the publishing model at the time basically forced every manga to keep on going for as long as possible, very much like most american TV in the older days. Because of that, Death Note wasn't allowed to end when the authors wanted it, so they had to keep things going. Also, even though I know I may be creating an excuse, Misa Misa's characterization was pretty much on part with most "heroines" found in the magazine, so it is more question of something considered the "norm" than the authors going out of their way to create a bad character. These authors created another manga (this one ended when they wanted) called Bakuman, which is a story about two teens trying to publish manga at Shounen Jump (it gets really meta), in that story the two teens create a massive hit manga that reaches its narrative conclusion quite fast and there are several chapters with the characters debating whether they should end the story or if they should keep going in order to capitalize on their anime adaptation... It is clearly the authors giving a not to what happened with Death Note (it only ran for 110 chapters or so, which was very short for non-cancelled shounen jump stories, L dies much earlier). Particularly, I think Bakuman is a much better story overall, despite its outdated outlook on romance (something very common in Japanese media, specially if it's geared towards a younger audience).
Man yeah I dont like how death note is flaunted as one of the best anime out there when it really, really isnt. If it kept up the quality from early on sure it would be that, but unfortunately it's not.
I really love this broken review style! If you can notice when your opinions are going to take a dive, break it there and show how your view changes! This was so cool to hear how high you thought of it after the disappoint depths
Man what you're saying about super genius characters ring so true. It'd be great to see an anime or book character with a kid who thinks he's smarter than everyone else just gets owned by regular adults, because I feel like that is what happens with angsty teens in the real world
It's literally what the Death Note (2006) and DN: The Last Name did, it's clearly superior than both the anime and manga with a phenomenal ending. Possibly the best anime live-action adaptation ever made.
I can at least respect what the end of Death Note was going for. It tried to give N and M the win without overshadowing L. Neither of the younger characters could surpass him on their own, but together Mello's fearless, chaotic approach and Near's cautious, calculating approach are able to unbalance Light. The three main problems are that Mello and Near are too unlikeable to care about, Light's fall come from a convoluted ploy involving minor characters and a perfectly forged death note, and Light is so obviously guilty by the end that it makes zero sense to agree to a final confrontation.
Personally, I think Near & Mello are actually much more likeable than given credit for (Matt too!) - it's just that a lot of people kind of just automatically get biased against them because they're not L; and I think a lot of the people who were into Death Note were not exactly fans of the whole "kill your darlings" / "main character death" type approach, back then...and the fandom was almost even split, some faved L while others faved Light(except for those who liked both, or neither). _But maybe that's just me.. ._
@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 L and M grew on me in later rereads once I developed a better understanding of their personalities. I like that despite being younger and calmer, N is arguably more of a sociopath than M. Both characters' actions lead to collateral damage, but M's mostly limits his to hardened criminals, he puts himself in the line of fire, and actually seems to give a damn about people. N, on the other hand, sees people almost exclusively as game pieces. I did like N more in the follow up one shot
You shoud watch/read Bakuman. It is basically the authors' story of how they became manga artists. And it also shows how they wanted to finish Death Note way earlier but the editors pressured them to keep writing because of its success. So in Bakuman they show a "what if" situation where they write a story but with a very different ending.
There's also the fact that the editor's set an "etched in stone" deadline for the manga to end at some point, such that the authors wouldn't have enough time develop/finish the story the way they had planned. Essentially, the editors fucked up a perfectly good story.
I'm fine with 1 through 25. Misa was a drop in quality, but I was still heavily invested. That episode where L accepts he's lost leverages a lot of the character work up to that moment and is a masterpiece in and of itself. L knows that there's nothing he can do anymore and just keeps making more and more direct provocations till the very end.
I feel like after a youtuber who originally doesn't watch anime starts to watch anime/read manga, everybody starts recommending stuff to them, but I'm gonna recommend more stuff anyways. You should watch Code Geass! Sort of like Death Note, there's a super-genius main character in a world with a cool premise, but people actually like this MC, and the ending is honestly one of the best I've ever seen in any anime.
@@DanielGreeneReviews I've tried to watch this show like three times, never was able to continue past episode 18 or so. Don't understand the obsession some people have with it, still have some good memories discussing the plot with friends though. There are many better anime with better writing don't think this is a pinnacle the medium has to offer (I'm sure you know that yourself but still)
@@jossecoupe446 Honestly, I think people have a mixture of nostalgia/rose tinted glasses vision and... the fact that a lot of people were in their edgy teenager phase and this show is beyond edgy. Plus, I think most people just remember L and forget the show continued after his death.
@@DanielGreeneReviews Spoilers: the reason for the horrible second half is that the author had planned to end it after Ls death but the publisher forced him to continue writing.
Not to be "That guy" but the manga handles this much better than the show, it feels a lot more fleshed out and less rushed probably because the time skip happens at the halfway point rather than two thirds in. Not to say its as good as the Light vs L half theres still a noticable drop in quality but its nowhere near (Nier if you will) as bad as in the anime
The manga is great. One of my favorites. I sometimes feel like I should stop at the L portion when I read it. I don't and the 2nd half always disappoints. I will say most of my favorite manga have sh*t endings. I guess that is the nature of weekly serialization.
@@GorbonM one piece never disappoints in falling action or just climax sequences, despite immense buildup and it has been doing it for 20+ years. I think it’s definitely possible to just plan things beforehand and have a more clear layout of your story. I think it’s more about if the authors think they have a good ending and you disagreeing with their opinion.
@@musabs5848 I was talking about Death Note not one piece. The authors actually agree with my opinion, and they wanted to end the series earlier, but editors wouldn't let them. I have a lot of respect from Ohba and Obata, and they are one of my favorite mangaka pairs (second only to One and Murata ofc) In terms of Mangaka in general Oda is the GOAT and One piece is the manga that gives it's reader the best experience overall. (Yasuhiro) Kano is probably my personal favorite mangaka (but I understand why his works aren't as popular)
@@musabs5848 Its extremely unfair to compare any other mangaka to Oda when it comes to build up and payoff since most other mangakas are totally under the heel of their producers and editors. Theres not much point in planning far ahead and building up to it when your editor can just go "no" and suddenly all your plans are in the trash, this is why most mangaka make it up as they go along with only vague plot points planned in the future. One piece however is by far the most popular manga right now and Shonen Jump know they cant push Oda around too much, which is how he gets to plan so far ahead and is able to focus on build up without worrying about the payoff being ruined.
Yes I was about to say this, the manga has twice the number of logical reasons, the Near HALF of the manga isn't RUSHED down to a third, and the alternate ending hits DIFFERENT.
Death Note remains my favourite anime but your review does a good job of analysing the problems of it. It does contain a few anime tropes like over stating something. The ending being a disappointment isn't very surprising lol. But despite that, I would still gladly watch the anime and read the manga. I do love the tension of this story :) Also, am looking forward to more rant reviews
Not gonna lie I was not expecting the super negative review. I have very similar problems with the show, especially with Misa, but I thought the plot work and character work between Light and L was some of the strongest character work out there. Anyway, it’s at least a little refreshing to hear a different perspective.
He seemed to have a clear direction that he saw/wanted the show to go and when that didn't happen he just wasn't on board anymore whatsoever. It's true, the direction it took was bad but it definitely doesn't justify the crazy 180 from "I love the show" to "I give it a 3/10"
@@Screcy The downfall is pretty steep and noticeable, though. It actually makes the score tank even harder for some people (including me), because you see the quality and potential early on, only to see it become a shit show as the story progresses. I always thought of Death Note as if it ended with Kira winning and L dying. Everything else afterwards was just a fever dream.
@@LightningRaven42 The fact that you felt that way is testament to how good the character work is in the show, it starts to make you root for an evil character and makes you question your own morality for choosing to do so. However, Light was always meant to die. It was foreshadowed at the start when Ryuk states that one day he will be the one to write Light's name in the book. That said, everything after L's death and before Light's death was pretty trash and could have been handled way better. (I have seen the anime twice and read the manga thrice.)
@@thomasrad5202 Oh, I have nothing against the ending itself and how Light turned out. My problem solely lies in the execution. Another thing I didn't like at all was how misused Misa Misa was. She could've potentially been an interesting character with a good impact on the story... Sadly she was Sakura'd into obscurity and became irrelevant to the story, which is something very common in most shounen manga, specially those of the shounen jump (something that changed quite a lot in recent years).
@@LightningRaven42 I understand what you say and I understand Daniel's score and opinion as well, I don't mind if he gave it a 3/10, that is perfect, its his opinion. But giving DN a 3/10 is like you forgot *all the first half* of the series xD (chapters 1-25), that is exaggerated, there has to be a balance.
Your analysis is almost word for word, emotion for emotion, the same as mine. Brilliant storytelling with too much exposition that the writers just give up on.
If you want to see a series that has similar elements but maneuvers them much better I recommend you watch Code Geass, in my opinion an anime that handles the boy genius tropes much better than Death Note and has one of the best endings in anime/manga, great video. 👌👌
Idk… I liked the show but I felt like the narrative told us that zero was a genius by having him execute all these surprise attacks but it never addresses how hard or impossible it would actually be to pull off
Can't say I didn't expect this lol Edit: Daniel should probably check out Code Geass. It's kind of similar to Death Note and has one of the best endings I've ever seen.( Pretty sure this isn't an unpopular opinion)
Code Geass is kinda the opposite of Death Note in how the quality is spread - it has slouches in between but a banger of an ending, which is all I remember it by. (even though this might be an unpopular opinion :D)
@@BakaKuma573 I think I'd agree. Maybe not S1's ending, even if that's still pretty good, but S2's ending is, imo, one of the best I've seen from an anime, and probably worth watching the series even if only for that ending.
Another similar anime/manga I'd recommend Is Monster, written by Urasawa Naoki its acclaimed as one of the best murder/thriller serial killers ever. I find qualms and critiques about this series but as whole I think this its still one of the best, also I'd recommend the manga over the anime.
The emotion behind your review says a lot about how this became such a cult classic. As a writer, this kind of reaction, although negative, still evokes a feeling of hitting a bullseye. I do believe this was meant for a younger audience (I was 18 or 19 when I watched it) and I think watching as an adult I can totally see why you feel the way you do. But as a young and dark minded person, it became something that left a stain on me to this day. Does it stand up to the test of time? Most cult classics don't. But if you watched it back in the day at a certain age, I think you'd have a different perspective. The ending left me with a lot of mixed emotions. I hated Light, but it still hurt to watch him come undone, which is wild because I hated his treatment of his followers, his family, and those who didn't deserve Light's god complex. I still love it. I watch some scenes on UA-cam to this day.
@@lukeyost7566 psycho pass is pretentious bullshit with characters that don't do shit and ideas that have been done to death... shit. At least in my opinion
Amen. I feel like anime and manga is mostly absurdism stories in one way or another, or for the better animes it isn't to the character level of books. Don't blame them, those are two different medias and it's different being in a character's head for five hundred pages compared to either feeling cringe when characters overexplain thing, or having the images being so personal to evoke people's emotiond
@@xaviermayi3686 Yeah. It's a hurdle for most people who haven't grown up with anime/manga I think. The huge cultural differences when it comes to Japanese stories, one can be enough to make a new watcher/reader cringe. For all my love for the medium, I think there are only a handful of series I would genuinely try to recommend to my friends. The list has narrowed even more as I've become an adult. There are some real gems, but they are under a lot of trash. And I think teenagers who enjoy this medium tend to not be able to look at their favorite series as an outsider or "normie" for lack of a better term.
@@wordtomyflag *Every medium has trash works, not just anime.* And I *disagree* when you say there is only a handful of series that could be recommended. I could *easily* recommend 100 animes that are not "cringe". Plus, regarding to recommendations, anime/manga have to be treated very different from the other mediums, *so when you recommend anime/manga to new viewers like Daniel, you have to start from bottom to top so that that person gets used to the medium little by little.*
@@xaviermayi3686 There are good written manga out there, problem is the most famous ones are the most trashy ones as well with the exception of One Piece and HxH.
@UCxpL9cokHCexTiK8-_3XctA exactly my friend. Also, I think that there are people that have watched/read *not* too much anime/manga and start to generalize like if they knew everything about both mediums and what they said was the absolute truth🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️, and clearly *that is completely wrong,* they CAN'T say those kinds of opinions if they haven't read and watched A LOT of anime/manga. I hate that kind of comments.
I still think the first two Japanese live action films have the best ending to the series [SPOILERS] It’s basically the same until L dies, you gotta make some changes when adapting after all, but when REM “kills” L, L fakes his death because he already wrote his own name in the death note before hand saying he’ll die peacefully in 23 days, so he ends up sacrificing himself to prove Light is Kira, then the end plays out like the manga with Ryuk writing Lights name in the death note right in front of him as opposed to Light running away and dying alone in a warehouse like in the anime.
After watching this all I wanna say is switch to the Hunter X Hunter anime. The manga will never come off hiatus but the anime actually has a good ending. Also it has literally the best magic system, ever
Great review Daniel! I’d really recommend you check on the manga/anime Bakuman. It’s by the same authors as Death Note, but it’s about the manga industry from the perspective from an up and coming author-artist duo. If you’re interested in understanding the manga industry, and what works do well and why, it’s a fun way to learn without just reading Wikipedia pages. There are lots of characters in the show/manga that are clear parallels of real like mangaka. The main rival of two leads seems to be a combination of Oda (One Piece) and Togashi (Best known for Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter).
You're probably sick of recommendations and have a pretty long list by now, but I recommend you check out MONSTER. It's very different from the anime/manga you've experienced so far but I think you would really enjoy it.
Showing both reviews was great. It’s exactly how I remember feeling when I watched death note. I was confused in what was happening after ep 12. Why was the quality dropping so much? it pulled me right out of the story Like Game of thrones, I will never rewatch.
I knew it! 🤣 Dang son, the shaaade and shift in tone in your review. I said that you would be in for a ride, but not how it would go. This series does acrobat levels of narrative and it hits people differently. I really didn't think the series recovered after the twist and the pacing is not consistent. I watched this series gradually and not binge watching (and I've heard the effect of experience is different). Agree and see a lot of what you said. And yeah, the ending doesn't have the payoff I wanted too, particularly in the path getting there. Thanks for giving your honest thoughts.
To answer your prompt from the end of the video, would not even do anything with the DN. That's way too risky and I would absolutely get caught. I'd just give it back to Ryuk, supplement him with an apple and send him back on his merry way.
It's always interesting to compare how new anime fans rate things, vs long time anime fans. 3/10? For me to rate something a 3, it has to be absolutely atrocious, and while Death Note may not be my favorite, it definitely wouldn't rank that low. But I have a lot more shows under my belt to compare it to. So while it's not the greatest show ever, compared to a lot of the other garbage anime I've seen, it's really not all that bad, lol.
My favorite shows are the ones that know when to end, and it's endlessly disappointing when you can see exactly when a show could have ended to make it a cultural touch stone but it keeps going. Supernatural is my go to example: nearly excellent, very fun, and very spooky first 5 seasons with a strong story, but goes on for another 10 seasons.
Death Note is the literal "I am 14 and is this is deep" anime for me. And because of that, I have a lot of nostalgia towards it. It was actually really fun to hear this perspective regardless.
Fun fact, the authors of Death Note would go on to write a series called Bakuman, a manga that's about two young mangaka trying to make it in the highly competitive manga industry in Japan. In Bakuman, the characters create a hit manga named Reversi which is essentially a reworked Death Note. The two mangaka fight their publishers to have the series end on their own terms, where both pseudo-Light and pseudo-L die together at the end, and they actually succeed in doing this. It's generally believes that the authors wrote this to illustrate how frustrated they were at not being able to end Death Note on their own terms, and how they were instead forced to stretch it beyond what they intended by their publishers, ultimately at the cost of the series quality. It was both a sly way of explaining their situation at the time, and also having a little revenge for the way Death Note was mistreated.
I was in middle school when I first read the manga (before watching the anime), and I still vividly remember the moment I read L's death scene. I got so into it, I forgot I was in class and I genuinely screamed 😂 The manga is... better, but still... This is still in my top 30(?), maybe even 20(?) anime, but I completely agree with all your complaints... There was so much wasted potential, and I hated feeling like they were holding my hand the whole time 😬
Man, something like Neon Genesis Evangelion would blow your mind out of the stratosphere. The show is a mess, but such a unique, bizarre and powerful rollercoster in both quality and subtext that it trancends "good" or "bad" and any number rating you can give it.
Except it is not a mess unless you are talking about the rebuilds those are the real mess but the original tv anime+end of eva makes sense if you pay attention to what you are watching. It just isn't conventional storytelling style so don't go to it expecting your usual hollywood style storytelling. It is more comparable to arthouse films and weird avant garde or postmodern fiction. No it wasn't just the director throwing some random references and religious stuff like some people think. If you have enough knowledge you can see that it references or straight up uses the philosophical or psychological ideas of people like kierkegaard, schopenhauer, heidegger, freud and jung in actually relevant ways and the infamous "meaningless" religious reference part isn't actually from mainstream christianity most of the time but it more often than not uses the ideas of esoteric parts of religion like gnosticism, jewish mysticism/kabbalah. Human instrumentality project should make that obvious. Some people as always will accuse it as overthinking and seeing shit that was not intended but i find it really hard to believe that all of those philosophical, psychological and religious ideas were combined together coincidentally in a coherent and correct manner. People always quote about how even the director said all of those were meaningless but in reality it was not anno who said those, from what i remember it was actually tsurumaki (assistant director) who said that. Not that it changes anything. Death of the author is a thing for a reason. The author may be straight up lying for some reasons like trolling for example i have seen that happen for a lot of things now. Anno is a guy who i feel like wouldn't care about defending his work by saying all of it makes sense since he already has a low esteem and view of himself. So what i am saying is theme wise the religious stuff do make sense but aesthetically, yeah it mostly works as a rule of cool. Random crosses appearing after an angel dies obviously doesn't have a deep meaning. That is the problem with those criticisms the actual substance gets ignored because people love making fun of how those little details are just random stuff. So the circlejerk around it makes that criticism get popular by people who didn't understand half of what they saw. And even most of the people who enjoyed eva doesn't have enough knowledge to defend it either so they just accept what other people are saying (mostly by people who already hate eva and use that religious references makes no sense part as an excuse to explian why they hate it) and say that they enjoyed it only for the characters and emotional parts etc. It became like a bullying at some point. They are forcing you to accept that it is all pseudo intellectual trash and you only liked it because you related to it there was nothing deep about it. When most of the time it is the opposite, people who either didn't relate to it at all or related a bit too hard hates it exactly because of that (since they don't like how it makes them confront themselves) so they try finding excuses for why they didn't like it. They don't want to feel inferior for not liking an "objectively good" but hard to understand series. I think we must be ok with accepting that some works of art are "smarter" than us. We sometimes just don't have the right background information for enjoying something and that is ok. You don't have to like something like ulysses. But don't call it pretentious and meaningless. Just say you didn't find it enjoyable and all the problems will be solved.
@@eduardoserpa1682 hmmm. Exactly, too much world building reduced the quality also there were literal moments where Lelouch just pulls a super iq move and you're wondering, where was the fucking build up??? Like how did you actually make this work or know about this?? I have no idea.
Code geass I couldn't finish the first season because Lelouch accidentally ordering the girl was one of the dumbest things ever. Coming from a "smart" anime. Also the chess was so bad
I thought the show was phenomenal up until L’s death. Especially the strategy Light used to forget everything to throw L off the trail and then spending a bunch of time chasing after Kira with L just to finally kill L. I loved that so much. I simply just didn’t ever care for N and thought the way Light lost in the end was so stupid and ended up hurting every character involved. Lastly I don’t remember the police officer getting mad at his girlfriend scene like you did. I remember it happening where the girlfriend was wanting to help but the police officer knew it was extremely dangerous to get involved and wanted to protect her from getting involved, which to me was both good character writing as it shows just how much he cares about her that he would rather her stay safe than catch Kira and a good opportunity for some exposition on the girl. I agree with pretty much everything you said about the series except for your take on that scene.
@@lampad4549 what I mean was that it was neither a clever strategy that N enacted to catch light nor was it lights arrogance and over trust in himself that led him to make a mistake allowing N to win. Rather it was a third party character who had a very simple job, yet failed to follow lights simple instructions. What it felt like the lesson at the end was is that light was right all along, he’s deserving of god status and is above everyone else. He should not trusted someone else. In other words the mistake that made him lose was not his own hubris, but a moment where he lacked hubris.
Death Note has been that story that the more I fiction I consume, I less and less I like it. Because when it's one of the first works you watch, it feels like one of the greatest show ever that went bad after L's death.
Well, why do you think so many fairly mediocre anime are regarded as masterpieces for so long? People get in touch with the media while young, don't watch much else besides it or things like that, and then when once in a while something does the bare minimum that other good stories are expected to have they flip out thinking they're seeing a masterpiece unfold... When they just are really seeing an alright story. Jujutsu Kaisen being one of the most recent and obvious examples. Overhyped as hell just because a good studio animated it, while the source material is straight trash.
@@LightningRaven42 jujutsu kaisen was very well know before the anime so...... Also: please, stop talking about what is trash and what is not, your a nobody on internet
Correct me is I'm wrong, but from what I remember the author wanted to end the series much earlier but the editor/ company wanted him to make the series longer which is why the series ended so messily. The author literally has another manga series about two teenagers becoming Manga-ka's and in one arc they literally begged their boss to let them end the series the way they wanted even though the the editors/boss wanted them to continue the series. lol, I guess the author wanted to make a commentary on how annoyed he was on how Manga companies tends to neglect making a good ending and only focusing on making a series as long as possible.
I don't recall the show ever painting Light as likeable outside of maybe the first episode and the episodes where he no longer has his memory. He is portrayed as being a completely manipulative sociopath with a god complex. Characters in the show might like him, and that's understandable since they don't know his inner thoughts like we do and he puts up a good facade. But yeah, the show really drops in quality, for me it was in the last 1/3 of the show... after they killed Light. I liked Misa well enough. By the way, the live action movie (Japanese version not english) has a much better ending...
Agreed I'd say it had one of the most iconic ending in anime for me when I watched it (I don't know if I'd hold the same opinion today, years later). But yeah worth a watch for sure.
The biggest crime of Death Note part 2 (that isn't directly related to its flaws from part 1), in my eyes, is setting up M and N... and then doing nothing of significance with either. N is just L2, and M just... hangs around the sidelines being a crime. The idea of L having two successors who have to work together is interesting on paper, but it also doesn't *leave* the paper. Fails to materialize in the narrative.
Honestly this is pretty much the consensus from the fans. The biggest reason for Death Note’s popularity is it’s a great gateway for people who don’t consume anime/manga.
Yeah I'm thinking pre-one piece daniel would've liked this better. My first was death note so i liked it till the end but now I've consumed many mangas, i think it fails in comparison.
We gotta have a balance, after L's death, it is true that DN went downhill BUT, we can't just forget about everything from the beginning to L's death or diminish it, because DN in that interval of chapters was a masterpiece imo. So no, DN is not just popular for being a gateway anime, it is more than that.
@@carlosdanielcalderonmontoy3723 I'm not saying it's terrible by any means. But I simply don't think it'd have anywhere near the popularity it does, if it wasn't something that is constantly consumed by new anime/manga watchers/readers.
The lead up to ending sucked but I thought the last episode was a very fitting end to light: he loses is an embarrassing, pitiful way, especially in the manga. So I really doubt Misa's obsession was supposed to anything other than extremely unhealthy.
You should watch Ping Pong The Animation it's Profound and have a lot to say, the art style can be a bit distracting the first time you watch it, but it'll grown on you.
If you're interested, there's two live action Japanese movies that cut out a lot of the fluff and overtly explanatory dialog. It however has a really cool alternate ending where L actually wins and catches Light, but at a great personal cost. The two movies are really worth the watch just to see, whats in my opinion, a much more satisfying ending.
Absolutely. I brought those movies after my sister made me watch them (before I was through the first half of the anime!). I almost stopped watching after L's cheap death but persevered out of morbid curiosity. To me those movies are the real story (in my little world)
In Japan, there are two live-action movies based on Death Note... and guess what? They cut Near out entirely (saving him for a spinoff movie) and have the second movie end in a way that combines L's death scene from the manga with the actual end of the manga/anime's story. It's honestly my favorite version of the narrative for that reason.
I can't disclose what I'd do with the Death Note. Maybe I'll get one some day, then all my plans would be written here, wouldn't they? I'm a step ahead of you, goblin-san. Fun fact about the writer (+the artist) of Death Note. They later on created a manga called Bakuman which is a story about two guys (also writer + artist duo, just like themselves) aspiring and becoming mangaka in Shonen Jump. Minor spoiler for that manga: The protagonists there created a successful manga and had an ending thought out for it, but the publisher desperately wanted them to try to find a continuation for the story. In that manga, the protagonists stayed true to their story and finished it where it was intended, because they valued the quality of the story over milking the audience and ruining what they were passionate about. Sounds like they too regret the decision they made with Death Note.
I loved the show up to the death of L. At that point the show went incredibly downhill. Completely agree with you there. It's worth noting that the ending of the anime is different from the manga. Namely the manner in which Light dies is slightly different (and also makes Ryuk a lot cooler, imo). And it's a lot more cathartic if you hate Light. I'd recommend checking out the manga's final chapters just for that. It doesn't solve the issues of the show, but at least it fixes this one thing.
Agree with you the whole way. When I was a first time watcher and didn't know anything about the show beside its basic premise, I quickly felt just how much the writing collapsed as the show goes on after those dozen episodes. And I don't know if this is a popular opinion, but I honestly felt that L, one of the driving force behind the show's success, didn't get the send-off he deserves. The way he lost felt too... easy, at least for me. It pissed me off even more seeing how stupid Light become the episodes after that, so I decided to stop watching and never looked back. No regrets.
I think that was actually kind of the point though... L actually planned on dying, just to catch Light. (So it literally WAS too easy-because that was L's final trap, for Light; because L knew that his death would compound Light's overconfidence, to Light's detriment...as well as confirm Light's identity as Kira to L, which L was literally dying to know for sure.) But maybe that was just what I read into it, myself.🤷♀️ I should rewatch it again, soon; it's been too long. Loll
Good review, I agree with almost everything. I'd give it a slightly higher score because it does entertain quite a bit. If I had a death note, I'd keep things subtle. I wouldn't kill whoever the media tells me is a 'bad guy' but things like confirmed killers at large, violent escapees from extremely high security prisons, and some terrorists would be fair game to have a little accident or shot while being apprehended without hurting anyone. Unless I was actually in law enforcement, I don't think I'd make it a crusade. Light's flaw is that he doing it for his ego, not justice. You have to judge all but very rare cases in detail and carefully weigh the evidence. Not go nuts because media. I'd also change the death note's cover to a new binding and burn the endless pages as I wrote on them. One more layer of security. Sans the shinigami, I would be untraceable. And if a few of those criminals happened to stow large amounts of untraceable money or winning lottery tickets in just such a place before dying... lucky me.
I remember back when this show was weekly, everyone was absolutely in love with it in the first half of the show, and then when the notable death happens, everyone in my friend was just angry and upset for like 3 months until it finished The second half is slightly better than it looks on a first watch, but only just and it is a real disappointment they didn't keep the tight story from the first half.
If I remember correctly, the live action movies (the japanese ones not the netflix garbage fire) they actually had the ending where L catches Light and it feels like the ending the creators originally wanted
Could you try Neon Genesis Evangelion? It changed the anime industry forever and the reason we get high quality anime. It has absurdism and surrealism, so you might like it. Note: Its lore is just a bait to get u interested, its real focus are its characters. And it does not spoon feed you the lore at ALL, so if you think that you will watch this show for its lore and world, then it will disappoint you.
I think Anno is so focused on character psychology that it made it divisive, but I really like his show don't tell approach. The rebuilds and the manga add bit more lore though, but the characters and themes are the forefront.
Since you've shown some interest into exploring the world of anime, I'm practically obligated to suggest my favourite. Not only my favourite anime, but also my favourite piece of media I've ever consumed: "Re: Zero - Starting Life in Another World". In contrast to all the shows you've watched so far which are based on manga, Re:Zero is actually based on a light novel and it's about a 17 year old shut-in who suddenly gets transported into a magical world. There are currently 2 seasons out with 25 episodes each.
I honestly want to see you watch Code Geass now, It’s similar to death note and very enjoyable with the big problem of starting out great, slowly going downhill but still being good, nosediving into confusing but mildly enjoyable mediocrity for about 3 eps, then getting to the brilliant last 5’ve eps. I personally think you’d enjoy it more than death note, but don’t read the manga of it. I also recommend Worm-by Wildbow, it’s a popular web serial I personally love and has nothing to do with death note. Good vid.
Perhaps you can look into Code Geass? It has similar vibes to Death Note in the way it has a highly productive, intelligent student who seeks a better world. But in contrast, this Anime goes into full blown war. In my opinion Code Geass' story is better than Death Notes, it has however a shameless amount of fanservice which is just sad. It is still worth a view in my opinion though, especially if you like the intellectual battles between L and Kira.
With Code Geass, I feel it suffers from the opposite problem. With Death Note, almost every chess move is overly explained to us (sometimes to the show's detriment). Whereas Code Geass almost consistently writes itself into corners, but pulls itself back out without explaining anything about how some of Lelouch's actions are possible.
went into code geass for the supposed similar "intellectual battles between L and Kira". found none. overall show was pretty meh with buncha intolerable characters. people say misa misa was annoying. that's p much every character in cg.
@@lightlawliet3526 you got lied to bud. I've been very careful to tell people that CG is similar to DN in the sense of "super intelligent high school kid is given a supernatural power and uses it to plot world domination." The only other parallel is that the director of CG deliberately said that the ending was supposed to be a redemptive ending in response to DN's tragic ending.
What you have to realize about anime and manga is that there is more involved than just the original creators intentions. Maybe you should read Bakuman next. I think it'd be a perfect followup and is kind of a direct answer to this series by the same creatives as Death Note.
Let's appreciate Daniel for being honest and truthful, guys. You barely get to see people like him and Merphy Napier cover anime/manga with this much thought and detail put onto a review.
Yeah verbalizing subtext in anime is a sometimes awkward translation from manga. In a manga hearing the characters thoughts or reactions may be necessary to understanding what’s going on, and anime has adopted that style. I’ve gotten used to it as a stylistic choice of the medium. However, I still think effective manga writing shows you what’s going on rather than having to tell you even with still images
As another suggestion for an anime to watch - as if you need more recommendations, cough - I recently finished ODDTAXI and found it surprisingly good, far better than I went in expecting. One thing I've seen praised a lot is how natural the dialogue sounds (in the original Japanese - I understand it's being dubbed and I have no clue if that will be half as good.)
ODDTAXI - you weird chimera of a anime. Do I hate you? But your story lines are so compelling and the characters so delicate. Do I love you? Your protagonist has the charisma of a block of wood. Your art work gives me hives, but the character design is so fresh and strange. ODDTAXI - you are the red bean matcha green bubble tea with mouse of anime.
Good format, I agree with your points, and thanks for getting me back into reading. Your joy over reading is infectious, and I'm loving all these book recommendations!
I highly recommend you read bakuman it's made by the same two guys who wrote and drew the Death Note manga and it will 100% give you a new look on the medium. It also showed their struggle with writing Death Note. It's basically a manga about mangaka(people who make manga) and it really gives you a solid look into the life of a mangaka and their struggles.
I'd like you to review something less "mainstream" in the anime /manga mediums. They're are so many gems that aren't "mainstream" 😭 Only issues I guess is the video would probably fail.
I recommend you read bastard on webtoon. I recommend you read it on your phone vs the website. The webtoon is like deathnote, but without the supernatural element. There is no show for it, only a webtoon that you can read. I really recommend it.
One thing that id like to point out is that one big reason why death note is so good and a cult classic is due to its artistic aesthetics, a manga is a experience both visually as story wise, im pretty sure that for a manga to survive the art is more important at the start of its run... Actually there is another manga called bakuman that pretty much tells the story of 2 graduates that try to make it as authors and how hard it is to make a manga good enough to become a best seller (that being death note)
I understand your dissapointment, but for me good things of this show are much bigger than bad things. I'm talking about music, directing, athmosphere, characters and themes.
Couldn’t agree more Daniel, they just didn’t know how to stick the landing. Gonna hit u w a recommendation for next anime review, give neon ghenisis evangelion a watch I think it’ll make u scratch ur head in a good way! Keep it up man love the vids
Steins;Gate is great, but Daniel would have to push through the first 12 or so Episodes to get to the good part. Not to say those first 12 are bad, only that they're pretty slow.
@@leonardotukiman8253 Steins;Gate holds up, it's Code Geass that's questionable if it holds up, unlike Death Note that starts slow and slowly descends, Code Geass is a rollercoaster in quality, up and down, up and down.
@@gracjanlekston134 Idk i have rewatched these two with peoplr not familiar with anime. Many found hyouin annoying and while I found revelations great when I was younger, I found it to be a let down now On the other hand, people forgive a lot of the ups and downs of code geass with the ending. Just an opinion, but i would put my bet that daniel would prefer code geass more than steins gate.
You asked earlier this week where your channel should go with content. Here. It should go here. I wanted more here. For you to talk again about your transforming opinion as you watched from ep.13 onward. I'd have liked to hear what your ideal death note story arc looks like. Basically, goblin script doctor. In general, videos that document your transforming views on a piece of media would be awesome
The same writer and artist made another manga called Bakuman and I love it for its premise of showing manga creators making manga and their struggle trying to publish their work. (Altho it has a romance subplot I kinda hate low-key but I still like the series alot)
Wow, the contrast between both reviews here is wild. I will say I actually kind of do like the final episode/chapter, but the rest of the back half is just a mess
100% recommend checking out another manga by the same creative team, Bakuman. It's almost an autobiographical story of being a writer/artist duo and trying to break into the highly competitive manga industry, only to have a sudden rise to stardom (with an in-universe parallel for Death Note specifically) and not knowing how to deal with the expectations and intense schedule that demands. One part celebration of the art form of comics, one part cautionary tale, one part bitter catharsis from the creators over their past failures.
I think that I rate death note so high (8/10) mainly because of nostalgia since it was my first anime and unlike you i liked misa's part in this story but i do agree that the show is kind of unwatchable after l's death . The only good think about that part of the series is that light died by the end which was a cool ending. BTW an anime that i think you would like is vinland saga it's a masterpiece in my opinion and even the manga is great too . Vinland Saga is about vikings and a boy trying to kill the murderer of his father honourably in a duel. It has great characters and story.
Totally agree... it was such a promising start and then just petered out. Also as a random aside I like how L just suddenly announces that offscreen he's had a skyscraper built for the five or so of them to work in...
Basically, everyone likes the first 12 episodes. Fans are split on whether Misa's introduction and the amnesia arc are terrible or the best part of the show (I personally am in the latter camp). And no one thinks Season 2 should have happened.
Daniel reviewing Death Note: i wish the subtext was left as subtext Daniel reviewing Berserk: generic tough guy MC I know you revoked your original review but i just thought it was a funny joke for those who understand
On the last video I mentioned I was nervous about you meeting a certain character (Misa), and hearing your opinion her I am not at all surprised. I can imagine many people would have a hard time not stopping upon her introduction. But, yeah, I agree with the sentiment that it starts strong and ends pretty weak; and also respect and agree with most of your criticisms. I do think the final episode was great, though.
It is worth note, I specifically HATE shows that have trash endings because I get bitter I invested the emotional time to begin with. If you don’t share that specific disliking, you might find the first half worth watching!
I mean is anyone shocked you hated it. You are the same person who disliked Berserk and dropped it after ONE volume. Definitely not a man of culture.
I think death note has a great ending.
Is this why western comics and cartoons have no story and virtually no endings? They just reboot stuff when it becomes stale and the cycle continues?
It's rather subjective whether the ending of something is "bad" or not.
i like how every1 used to hale Death Note as some masterpiece when it came out but years later it obviously didn't age well and people now realize the many issues it had and that it is overall not a very good story.
next Kingdom (manga) not K-drama.
Death Note first half: "It's gotten me by the NIPS!!"
Death Note second half: *purple nurple*
That got an actual laugh out of me.
@@DanielGreeneReviews Dan check the manga, it has a different ending, and 3 is too low man, if you rated every aspect if it alone it will get higher in total, as in some aspects its way high
@@aymanayssa9085 Different ending? No it doesn't.
@@aymanayssa9085 It's strange of you to say that his opinion of a 3 is too low. Lol It's his opinion.
@@TheAsianDude888 Sounds like it’s his opinion that Daniel’s opinion is wrong. Seems pretty okay to me.
I love everything about DN until L's death. The 2nd arc is a bit offputting for some, but I loved seeing Light without the DN interacting with L. They made a brilliant team, and it shows what kind of life Light could've had if he weren't cursed by the notebook (it's alluded to several times that the DN has some kind of power that makes you want to try it out). Makes the series that much more tragic.
I don't think the death note had any power of that sort. I think the show is sending a message about human nature: that power corrupts people. The note didn't corrupt Light through some ability, it corrupted him by simply giving him power. I mean, who wouldn't try the Death Note if they had the chance?
@@madnessoverload7824 agreed
When I was watching I thought that the plot would go in a direction where Light basically had to uncover that he used to be Kira and when he did regain his memories he would've had this internal conflict about it since he just spent so much time fighting against himself. I feel like something like that would've been way cooler than what actually happened tbh
1:11 Honestly, the original manga creator had been quite clear on his regrets on not ending the series earlier. I could sense the bitterness from reading another manga they made. (A manga about making manga), the MC duo makes a manga that is remarkably similar to the premise of death note and in the manga, they decide to end the series early, which resulted in very successful results and explanations of why it was the right choice.
Bakuman is such an amazing manga and definitely needs more recognition
Bakuman is in my top 5 stories of all time. They deserve to have that one outlast Death Note.
Well they wanted to end it at L's death, Danies clearly has issues with it far before that moment, so I don't think this is fully it honestly, at leasdt for him, for the general fanbase, yeah, L's death is where the actual drop off is considered.
@@darekpower When L died there was threads still hanging though which is part of why it is so surprising when it happens. I think for it to end there more would of had to of originally been different in the lead up to that moment.
If that makes sense.
Wait hold up. BAKUMAN is by the creator of death note????
"I'm expecting a bit of a drop off." -Top 10 statements said right before disaster.
Some anime recommendations you may want to look into:
Monster - A great psychological thriller. A bit long, but worth it. Almost no 'anime-isms'. Kinda like Death Note grew up and realized it's potential.
Kaiji Ultimate Survivor - High stakes gambling. If you think Squid Game didn't have a harsh enough message about capitalism, watch this.
Steins;Gate - Probably the best time travel story I've seen. It's 25 episodes and takes a while to really good, but the ending is so good.
Claymore (this is a manga) - Witcher, but women, in a dark-fantasy world, with shape-shifting, man-eating monsters.
Keep up the good work, Daniel!
I love Monster and Claymore, I second this!
Also add Madoka Magica to that list. It's not too long.
Steins;Gate is a classic
Hunter X Hunter: great overall but the magic system what really puts it over the top.
Dorohedoro:the show is good but incomplete, the manga is a grimdark urban fantasy with a distinctive art style and it's finished.
I'd add Moribito. I think he'd really like the world building, and the fact that everyone actually acts like rational adults.
On the ending
SPOILERS:
In the manga, it is strongly implied that Near actually used the Death Note at the end to control the person who fucked up and exposed Light, since he randomly dies in prison a short time later. Matsuda is the one that puts this all together, funnily enough
True that.
Spoilers...
Are you talking about mikami. He dies right there, suicide. Not random prison. He couldn't take it that his god didn't acknowledge him when it didn't suit him.
Yeah manga implied that Near used death note for that.
@@tusharjoglekar Mikami commiting suicide is an anime decision, in the manga he just surrenders and rejects Light after seeing him freak out and come off as a petulant child rather than the all-powerful God he thought he was
@@tusharjoglekar that's anime, he's talking about manga.. IIRC in the manga Mikami went to jail and he's just disappointed that Light becomes so pathetic and a god shouldn't be that.
When did this happen?
I stopped caring about the show after L died. I just read the manga. Near is pretty bland and I got tired of Light very soon. I was pretty meh about the ending because I was so emotionally not invested by the time I read it. I didn't even think about it for years.
How good is the manga compared to the anime?
I simply stopped watching after L died, and I absolutely believe that this was the right decision
@@archlectoryarvi2873 the anime is a pretty faithful adaptation.
@@MassiveEffect Not really. They took the last half of the manga and turned it into the last third of the anime.
Does the manga do the post-L part better?
I feel like the greatest weakness of Death Note was it's inability to have Light fail through his own faults.
From it's setup it could have been a great story along the lines of a Greek tragedy, with Light's hubris and the inherent flaws of his worldview driving him to ultimately be the orchestrator of his own downfall. Light was, at his heart, a very clever child with a very childish notion of how the world worked, and for all his intelligence he lacked experience and perspective. THAT should have been his undoing.
I don't know. Light constantly loses ground and gives stuff away because of his overconfidence and his expectation that he'll always be in control of the situation, and gets real whiny when something catches him off guard and puts him on the defensive. His downfall is just one more manifestation of this, where he basically confesses by accident with his "I win" because he was so confident everyone acted out exactly like he expected them to. Basically, he loses because he buys his own hype and thinks he's God.
@@thegodofalldragons that’s totally true, the show would basically never happen if during the second episode light was so conceited as to try to kill L, if he just let someone opposing him go with the confidence that he won’t be found out than L would never have found out that kira was in japan, if light didn’t constantly try to flex his superiority, another example is with ray pember, he confronts ray himself when there would surely be a work around but light always has to let his enemies know that he is better, not to sound like i’m praising this as the best character design and the im 14 and this is deep stuff but i think his hubris was still a potent factor in the story up until it…well it wasn’t i guess 🤷♂️
typical ending
He did lead to his own downfall. Because he killed Lind L Taylor he lost. I'm pretty sure there's other moments too.
If you want a true crime cat and mouse story that doesn't drop off in the middle. (And has beautifully fleshed out characters.) Please read/watch the manga/anime Monster! You will not regret it.
I second this one. I loved monster. It’s also one of the only anime I think could have an absolute BANGER of a live action show.
@@tristanb7183 I agree! It's so grounded in reality that it's one of the rare anime/manga series that could very easily translate well into live action. I'm honestly surprised that it hasn't yet!
Hell yeah, it's also probably one of the best anime for people who arent a fan of the usual anime tropes.
@@tristanb7183 Been thinking about that for ages, its the one anime I could see being really well adapted by the west as a live action show.
@@heroluka7088 Right? It's also set in the Europe so it would be really easy to find locations that mimicked those in the series. (If a western company was doing the adaptation.) And, you really wouldn't need to change the plot much. It just needs a little streamlining but the first draft is all there.
You might really appreciate the show Code Geass - not based on a manga, I found it fascinating in both character and plot and I honestly don’t know anything like it, I think Zero is one of the most dynamic and genius protagonists in anime 👽
Upvote on Code Geass
Idk man it is epitome of bad writing and tries to do all the stuff to drag it on. It is carried by lelouch himself but sometimes his intellect is unrealistic as he had no prior military experience and somehow able to outsmart those who do. Still it had a good ending.
Well, genius in-universe.
Terrible recommendation. Daniel hated Death Note for specifically its writing and convoluted themes. The worst thing he could do is watch Code fucking Geass next which is the KING of nonsensical writing and convoluted themes. Lelouch is a decent character, sure, but he's at the very least not superior to Light and/or L. Code Geass is the epitome of a turn-off-your-brain show, and even in that sense it fails because the mech battles are shit and boring and the big moments lose part of or all of their weight once you think about them for a bit. I do kind of respect the show for how bombastic it is and how it's kind of an enigma (and yeah, there's nothing quite like it), but it's still utter dog shit.
I don't mean to be too aggressive, I just really hate Code Geass and I don't think it's a good choice for him.
@@jakel4316 Yeah people think that if they enjoyed something that everyone will enjoy it.
Well, the reason why everyone likes it is because of the wild ride that you go on before a major plot decison takes place, and just forgetting the show after that. I guess it is our community's fault as a whole, But hey, the first half was pretty good right?
First half was outstanding!
It went from a case study for any writer for its positives of the part you are talking about to literally its opposite after that, and for me, it became a show to binge watch in my free time
@@DanielGreeneReviews Just so you know, even the authors don't like what they did with the story. The issue is that the magazine this story was published is Shounen Jump (which is focused on teens and older kids), the publishing model at the time basically forced every manga to keep on going for as long as possible, very much like most american TV in the older days.
Because of that, Death Note wasn't allowed to end when the authors wanted it, so they had to keep things going. Also, even though I know I may be creating an excuse, Misa Misa's characterization was pretty much on part with most "heroines" found in the magazine, so it is more question of something considered the "norm" than the authors going out of their way to create a bad character.
These authors created another manga (this one ended when they wanted) called Bakuman, which is a story about two teens trying to publish manga at Shounen Jump (it gets really meta), in that story the two teens create a massive hit manga that reaches its narrative conclusion quite fast and there are several chapters with the characters debating whether they should end the story or if they should keep going in order to capitalize on their anime adaptation... It is clearly the authors giving a not to what happened with Death Note (it only ran for 110 chapters or so, which was very short for non-cancelled shounen jump stories, L dies much earlier).
Particularly, I think Bakuman is a much better story overall, despite its outdated outlook on romance (something very common in Japanese media, specially if it's geared towards a younger audience).
I agree. I love first half and second half is just waste of time.
Man yeah I dont like how death note is flaunted as one of the best anime out there when it really, really isnt. If it kept up the quality from early on sure it would be that, but unfortunately it's not.
I really love this broken review style! If you can notice when your opinions are going to take a dive, break it there and show how your view changes! This was so cool to hear how high you thought of it after the disappoint depths
From the moment Daniel positively reviewed the first ep I was looking forward to him absolutely ripping apart the last 1/3 of this show
Man what you're saying about super genius characters ring so true. It'd be great to see an anime or book character with a kid who thinks he's smarter than everyone else just gets owned by regular adults, because I feel like that is what happens with angsty teens in the real world
It's literally what the Death Note (2006) and DN: The Last Name did, it's clearly superior than both the anime and manga with a phenomenal ending. Possibly the best anime live-action adaptation ever made.
For me death note ends when L dies.
P.S:I would never in the right mind give DN a 3/10 tho tbh.
Same
Fax
L dies and Light wins
Ah so you prefer the musicals ending?
Yup.
I can at least respect what the end of Death Note was going for. It tried to give N and M the win without overshadowing L. Neither of the younger characters could surpass him on their own, but together Mello's fearless, chaotic approach and Near's cautious, calculating approach are able to unbalance Light. The three main problems are that Mello and Near are too unlikeable to care about, Light's fall come from a convoluted ploy involving minor characters and a perfectly forged death note, and Light is so obviously guilty by the end that it makes zero sense to agree to a final confrontation.
Personally, I think Near & Mello are actually much more likeable than given credit for (Matt too!) - it's just that a lot of people kind of just automatically get biased against them because they're not L; and I think a lot of the people who were into Death Note were not exactly fans of the whole "kill your darlings" / "main character death" type approach, back then...and the fandom was almost even split, some faved L while others faved Light(except for those who liked both, or neither).
_But maybe that's just me.. ._
@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 L and M grew on me in later rereads once I developed a better understanding of their personalities. I like that despite being younger and calmer, N is arguably more of a sociopath than M. Both characters' actions lead to collateral damage, but M's mostly limits his to hardened criminals, he puts himself in the line of fire, and actually seems to give a damn about people. N, on the other hand, sees people almost exclusively as game pieces. I did like N more in the follow up one shot
@@PainCausingSamurai ^^ Fair. / True. Lol
You shoud watch/read Bakuman. It is basically the authors' story of how they became manga artists. And it also shows how they wanted to finish Death Note way earlier but the editors pressured them to keep writing because of its success. So in Bakuman they show a "what if" situation where they write a story but with a very different ending.
There's also the fact that the editor's set an "etched in stone" deadline for the manga to end at some point, such that the authors wouldn't have enough time develop/finish the story the way they had planned. Essentially, the editors fucked up a perfectly good story.
I'm fine with 1 through 25. Misa was a drop in quality, but I was still heavily invested. That episode where L accepts he's lost leverages a lot of the character work up to that moment and is a masterpiece in and of itself. L knows that there's nothing he can do anymore and just keeps making more and more direct provocations till the very end.
I find it amusing when new people watch Death Note and they experience what we have felt for years
I feel like after a youtuber who originally doesn't watch anime starts to watch anime/read manga, everybody starts recommending stuff to them, but I'm gonna recommend more stuff anyways. You should watch Code Geass! Sort of like Death Note, there's a super-genius main character in a world with a cool premise, but people actually like this MC, and the ending is honestly one of the best I've ever seen in any anime.
I still maintain that the first 10 or so episodes are some of the best storytelling ever done in anime. They just wrote themselves into a corner
Good storytelling avoids writing itself into a corner.
@@DanielGreeneReviews I've tried to watch this show like three times, never was able to continue past episode 18 or so. Don't understand the obsession some people have with it, still have some good memories discussing the plot with friends though. There are many better anime with better writing don't think this is a pinnacle the medium has to offer (I'm sure you know that yourself but still)
@@jossecoupe446 Honestly, I think people have a mixture of nostalgia/rose tinted glasses vision and... the fact that a lot of people were in their edgy teenager phase and this show is beyond edgy.
Plus, I think most people just remember L and forget the show continued after his death.
@@DanielGreeneReviews Tolkien begs to differ haha
@@DanielGreeneReviews Spoilers:
the reason for the horrible second half is that the author had planned to end it after Ls death but the publisher forced him to continue writing.
Not to be "That guy" but the manga handles this much better than the show, it feels a lot more fleshed out and less rushed probably because the time skip happens at the halfway point rather than two thirds in. Not to say its as good as the Light vs L half theres still a noticable drop in quality but its nowhere near (Nier if you will) as bad as in the anime
The manga is great. One of my favorites. I sometimes feel like I should stop at the L portion when I read it. I don't and the 2nd half always disappoints.
I will say most of my favorite manga have sh*t endings. I guess that is the nature of weekly serialization.
@@GorbonM one piece never disappoints in falling action or just climax sequences, despite immense buildup and it has been doing it for 20+ years. I think it’s definitely possible to just plan things beforehand and have a more clear layout of your story. I think it’s more about if the authors think they have a good ending and you disagreeing with their opinion.
@@musabs5848 I was talking about Death Note not one piece. The authors actually agree with my opinion, and they wanted to end the series earlier, but editors wouldn't let them.
I have a lot of respect from Ohba and Obata, and they are one of my favorite mangaka pairs (second only to One and Murata ofc)
In terms of Mangaka in general Oda is the GOAT and One piece is the manga that gives it's reader the best experience overall.
(Yasuhiro) Kano is probably my personal favorite mangaka (but I understand why his works aren't as popular)
@@musabs5848 Its extremely unfair to compare any other mangaka to Oda when it comes to build up and payoff since most other mangakas are totally under the heel of their producers and editors. Theres not much point in planning far ahead and building up to it when your editor can just go "no" and suddenly all your plans are in the trash, this is why most mangaka make it up as they go along with only vague plot points planned in the future. One piece however is by far the most popular manga right now and Shonen Jump know they cant push Oda around too much, which is how he gets to plan so far ahead and is able to focus on build up without worrying about the payoff being ruined.
Yes I was about to say this, the manga has twice the number of logical reasons, the Near HALF of the manga isn't RUSHED down to a third, and the alternate ending hits DIFFERENT.
I recommend you to read/watch Monster by Naoki Urasawa next. It has some great psychological ideas and storytelling. Also an amazing villain.
Agree! I've been saying for years that Monster > Death Note.
Monster. Yes!
There's also Parasite, on the "interesting" side.
Monster might be my favourite seinen
He'd have to read it since there's nowhere it streams
@@kyleledermann2473 You can just find it on UA-cam, lol.
Death Note remains my favourite anime but your review does a good job of analysing the problems of it.
It does contain a few anime tropes like over stating something. The ending being a disappointment isn't very surprising lol.
But despite that, I would still gladly watch the anime and read the manga. I do love the tension of this story :)
Also, am looking forward to more rant reviews
Not gonna lie I was not expecting the super negative review. I have very similar problems with the show, especially with Misa, but I thought the plot work and character work between Light and L was some of the strongest character work out there. Anyway, it’s at least a little refreshing to hear a different perspective.
He seemed to have a clear direction that he saw/wanted the show to go and when that didn't happen he just wasn't on board anymore whatsoever. It's true, the direction it took was bad but it definitely doesn't justify the crazy 180 from "I love the show" to "I give it a 3/10"
@@Screcy The downfall is pretty steep and noticeable, though. It actually makes the score tank even harder for some people (including me), because you see the quality and potential early on, only to see it become a shit show as the story progresses.
I always thought of Death Note as if it ended with Kira winning and L dying. Everything else afterwards was just a fever dream.
@@LightningRaven42 The fact that you felt that way is testament to how good the character work is in the show, it starts to make you root for an evil character and makes you question your own morality for choosing to do so. However, Light was always meant to die. It was foreshadowed at the start when Ryuk states that one day he will be the one to write Light's name in the book.
That said, everything after L's death and before Light's death was pretty trash and could have been handled way better. (I have seen the anime twice and read the manga thrice.)
@@thomasrad5202 Oh, I have nothing against the ending itself and how Light turned out. My problem solely lies in the execution.
Another thing I didn't like at all was how misused Misa Misa was. She could've potentially been an interesting character with a good impact on the story... Sadly she was Sakura'd into obscurity and became irrelevant to the story, which is something very common in most shounen manga, specially those of the shounen jump (something that changed quite a lot in recent years).
@@LightningRaven42 I understand what you say and I understand Daniel's score and opinion as well, I don't mind if he gave it a 3/10, that is perfect, its his opinion. But giving DN a 3/10 is like you forgot *all the first half* of the series xD (chapters 1-25), that is exaggerated, there has to be a balance.
My lord this feels so harsh 😂😭 fair enough though. Your anime/manga content is very entertaining, I hope you continue to explore the medium.
Your analysis is almost word for word, emotion for emotion, the same as mine. Brilliant storytelling with too much exposition that the writers just give up on.
If you want to see a series that has similar elements but maneuvers them much better I recommend you watch Code Geass, in my opinion an anime that handles the boy genius tropes much better than Death Note and has one of the best endings in anime/manga, great video. 👌👌
Ehhhh, code geass also goes of the rails in the second season, I do agree that it sticks the landing perfectly tho
Idk… I liked the show but I felt like the narrative told us that zero was a genius by having him execute all these surprise attacks but it never addresses how hard or impossible it would actually be to pull off
Can anybody tells me how Lelouch able to drive nightmare without any training 🤔
lol
Can't say I didn't expect this lol
Edit: Daniel should probably check out Code Geass. It's kind of similar to Death Note and has one of the best endings I've ever seen.( Pretty sure this isn't an unpopular opinion)
Code Geass is kinda the opposite of Death Note in how the quality is spread - it has slouches in between but a banger of an ending, which is all I remember it by. (even though this might be an unpopular opinion :D)
@@BakaKuma573 Exactly
@@BakaKuma573 I think I'd agree. Maybe not S1's ending, even if that's still pretty good, but S2's ending is, imo, one of the best I've seen from an anime, and probably worth watching the series even if only for that ending.
Nah he’d hate code geass more than deathnote tbh.
Code Geass has some of the same problems, but at least it manages to end really well in both seasons. There's also a lot more lore.
Another similar anime/manga I'd recommend Is Monster, written by Urasawa Naoki its acclaimed as one of the best murder/thriller serial killers ever. I find qualms and critiques about this series but as whole I think this its still one of the best, also I'd recommend the manga over the anime.
The emotion behind your review says a lot about how this became such a cult classic. As a writer, this kind of reaction, although negative, still evokes a feeling of hitting a bullseye. I do believe this was meant for a younger audience (I was 18 or 19 when I watched it) and I think watching as an adult I can totally see why you feel the way you do. But as a young and dark minded person, it became something that left a stain on me to this day. Does it stand up to the test of time? Most cult classics don't. But if you watched it back in the day at a certain age, I think you'd have a different perspective. The ending left me with a lot of mixed emotions. I hated Light, but it still hurt to watch him come undone, which is wild because I hated his treatment of his followers, his family, and those who didn't deserve Light's god complex. I still love it. I watch some scenes on UA-cam to this day.
Naoki Urasawa's Monster is a much better psychological anime series imo. So is Psycho Pass.
Psycho pass is extremely underrated… he needs to watch the first season
Monster also has an amazing OP
@@jamesadvincola9687 ya lol
Psycho Pass is pure gold.
@@lukeyost7566 psycho pass is pretentious bullshit with characters that don't do shit and ideas that have been done to death... shit. At least in my opinion
I feel like the more anime/manga Daniel reviews, the more "Rant Reviews" we'll see xD
Enjoy your trip to London Daniel!
Amen. I feel like anime and manga is mostly absurdism stories in one way or another, or for the better animes it isn't to the character level of books. Don't blame them, those are two different medias and it's different being in a character's head for five hundred pages compared to either feeling cringe when characters overexplain thing, or having the images being so personal to evoke people's emotiond
@@xaviermayi3686 Yeah. It's a hurdle for most people who haven't grown up with anime/manga I think. The huge cultural differences when it comes to Japanese stories, one can be enough to make a new watcher/reader cringe. For all my love for the medium, I think there are only a handful of series I would genuinely try to recommend to my friends. The list has narrowed even more as I've become an adult. There are some real gems, but they are under a lot of trash. And I think teenagers who enjoy this medium tend to not be able to look at their favorite series as an outsider or "normie" for lack of a better term.
@@wordtomyflag *Every medium has trash works, not just anime.*
And I *disagree* when you say there is only a handful of series that could be recommended. I could *easily* recommend 100 animes that are not "cringe". Plus, regarding to recommendations, anime/manga have to be treated very different from the other mediums, *so when you recommend anime/manga to new viewers like Daniel, you have to start from bottom to top so that that person gets used to the medium little by little.*
@@xaviermayi3686 There are good written manga out there, problem is the most famous ones are the most trashy ones as well with the exception of One Piece and HxH.
@UCxpL9cokHCexTiK8-_3XctA exactly my friend.
Also, I think that there are people that have watched/read *not* too much anime/manga and start to generalize like if they knew everything about both mediums and what they said was the absolute truth🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️, and clearly *that is completely wrong,* they CAN'T say those kinds of opinions if they haven't read and watched A LOT of anime/manga. I hate that kind of comments.
I still think the first two Japanese live action films have the best ending to the series [SPOILERS]
It’s basically the same until L dies, you gotta make some changes when adapting after all, but when REM “kills” L, L fakes his death because he already wrote his own name in the death note before hand saying he’ll die peacefully in 23 days, so he ends up sacrificing himself to prove Light is Kira, then the end plays out like the manga with Ryuk writing Lights name in the death note right in front of him as opposed to Light running away and dying alone in a warehouse like in the anime.
After watching this all I wanna say is switch to the Hunter X Hunter anime. The manga will never come off hiatus but the anime actually has a good ending. Also it has literally the best magic system, ever
😀👍 Agree!
Nen is ok. But yeah, it has my second favorite antagonist and character arc of all time.
Facts. Can't hate an ending if it will never have one.
@@Broke_AF_FR There's a host of great antagonists in HxH. I don't think any other show compares in that aspect.
@@Kobi_89 meruem stands above all Shonen villians by far... As a character tho... As a villian... Big 3 villians are better
Great review Daniel! I’d really recommend you check on the manga/anime Bakuman. It’s by the same authors as Death Note, but it’s about the manga industry from the perspective from an up and coming author-artist duo. If you’re interested in understanding the manga industry, and what works do well and why, it’s a fun way to learn without just reading Wikipedia pages.
There are lots of characters in the show/manga that are clear parallels of real like mangaka. The main rival of two leads seems to be a combination of Oda (One Piece) and Togashi (Best known for Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter).
I’ve rewatch this show so many times, its great
It's not worth reviewinh tbh. Its so mediocre.
You're probably sick of recommendations and have a pretty long list by now, but I recommend you check out MONSTER. It's very different from the anime/manga you've experienced so far but I think you would really enjoy it.
Nice pfp
Showing both reviews was great. It’s exactly how I remember feeling when I watched death note.
I was confused in what was happening after ep 12. Why was the quality dropping so much? it pulled me right out of the story
Like Game of thrones, I will never rewatch.
I have rewatched the first arc a few times. I always stop as soon as Light gets caught, lol.
I knew it! 🤣 Dang son, the shaaade and shift in tone in your review. I said that you would be in for a ride, but not how it would go. This series does acrobat levels of narrative and it hits people differently. I really didn't think the series recovered after the twist and the pacing is not consistent. I watched this series gradually and not binge watching (and I've heard the effect of experience is different). Agree and see a lot of what you said. And yeah, the ending doesn't have the payoff I wanted too, particularly in the path getting there.
Thanks for giving your honest thoughts.
To answer your prompt from the end of the video, would not even do anything with the DN. That's way too risky and I would absolutely get caught. I'd just give it back to Ryuk, supplement him with an apple and send him back on his merry way.
It's always interesting to compare how new anime fans rate things, vs long time anime fans. 3/10? For me to rate something a 3, it has to be absolutely atrocious, and while Death Note may not be my favorite, it definitely wouldn't rank that low. But I have a lot more shows under my belt to compare it to. So while it's not the greatest show ever, compared to a lot of the other garbage anime I've seen, it's really not all that bad, lol.
For Daniel's rating system a meh is 5/10. So a 3/10 makes sense for a bad. Atrocious would he like 1 or maybe 2/10.
My favorite shows are the ones that know when to end, and it's endlessly disappointing when you can see exactly when a show could have ended to make it a cultural touch stone but it keeps going. Supernatural is my go to example: nearly excellent, very fun, and very spooky first 5 seasons with a strong story, but goes on for another 10 seasons.
Money💰
Death Note is the literal "I am 14 and is this is deep" anime for me.
And because of that, I have a lot of nostalgia towards it.
It was actually really fun to hear this perspective regardless.
Fun fact, the authors of Death Note would go on to write a series called Bakuman, a manga that's about two young mangaka trying to make it in the highly competitive manga industry in Japan.
In Bakuman, the characters create a hit manga named Reversi which is essentially a reworked Death Note.
The two mangaka fight their publishers to have the series end on their own terms, where both pseudo-Light and pseudo-L die together at the end, and they actually succeed in doing this.
It's generally believes that the authors wrote this to illustrate how frustrated they were at not being able to end Death Note on their own terms, and how they were instead forced to stretch it beyond what they intended by their publishers, ultimately at the cost of the series quality.
It was both a sly way of explaining their situation at the time, and also having a little revenge for the way Death Note was mistreated.
I loved bakuman i was staring to get into manga and it started to publish, the first manga i read weekly after the big 3.
I was in middle school when I first read the manga (before watching the anime), and I still vividly remember the moment I read L's death scene. I got so into it, I forgot I was in class and I genuinely screamed 😂
The manga is... better, but still...
This is still in my top 30(?), maybe even 20(?) anime, but I completely agree with all your complaints... There was so much wasted potential, and I hated feeling like they were holding my hand the whole time 😬
Same sentiments here. The build up was so good. But the latter half felt like a cliff of disappointment.
Man, something like Neon Genesis Evangelion would blow your mind out of the stratosphere.
The show is a mess, but such a unique, bizarre and powerful rollercoster in both quality and subtext that it trancends "good" or "bad" and any number rating you can give it.
Ummm...out of stratosphere..
Id think so.
Except it is not a mess unless you are talking about the rebuilds those are the real mess but the original tv anime+end of eva makes sense if you pay attention to what you are watching. It just isn't conventional storytelling style so don't go to it expecting your usual hollywood style storytelling. It is more comparable to arthouse films and weird avant garde or postmodern fiction. No it wasn't just the director throwing some random references and religious stuff like some people think. If you have enough knowledge you can see that it references or straight up uses the philosophical or psychological ideas of people like kierkegaard, schopenhauer, heidegger, freud and jung in actually relevant ways and the infamous "meaningless" religious reference part isn't actually from mainstream christianity most of the time but it more often than not uses the ideas of esoteric parts of religion like gnosticism, jewish mysticism/kabbalah. Human instrumentality project should make that obvious. Some people as always will accuse it as overthinking and seeing shit that was not intended but i find it really hard to believe that all of those philosophical, psychological and religious ideas were combined together coincidentally in a coherent and correct manner. People always quote about how even the director said all of those were meaningless but in reality it was not anno who said those, from what i remember it was actually tsurumaki (assistant director) who said that. Not that it changes anything. Death of the author is a thing for a reason. The author may be straight up lying for some reasons like trolling for example i have seen that happen for a lot of things now. Anno is a guy who i feel like wouldn't care about defending his work by saying all of it makes sense since he already has a low esteem and view of himself. So what i am saying is theme wise the religious stuff do make sense but aesthetically, yeah it mostly works as a rule of cool. Random crosses appearing after an angel dies obviously doesn't have a deep meaning. That is the problem with those criticisms the actual substance gets ignored because people love making fun of how those little details are just random stuff. So the circlejerk around it makes that criticism get popular by people who didn't understand half of what they saw. And even most of the people who enjoyed eva doesn't have enough knowledge to defend it either so they just accept what other people are saying (mostly by people who already hate eva and use that religious references makes no sense part as an excuse to explian why they hate it) and say that they enjoyed it only for the characters and emotional parts etc. It became like a bullying at some point. They are forcing you to accept that it is all pseudo intellectual trash and you only liked it because you related to it there was nothing deep about it. When most of the time it is the opposite, people who either didn't relate to it at all or related a bit too hard hates it exactly because of that (since they don't like how it makes them confront themselves) so they try finding excuses for why they didn't like it. They don't want to feel inferior for not liking an "objectively good" but hard to understand series. I think we must be ok with accepting that some works of art are "smarter" than us. We sometimes just don't have the right background information for enjoying something and that is ok. You don't have to like something like ulysses. But don't call it pretentious and meaningless. Just say you didn't find it enjoyable and all the problems will be solved.
Code Geass is so similar to Death note but is more action oriented, more consistent in its themes and probably had the best anime ending
Yup, the ending makes the other meh parts of the show tolerable
Code geass is way better than death note but there are a lot of lazy writing
Code Geass meanders a bit on both seasons for trying to do too much world-building. That aside, it's pretty good, and has more interesting themes imo.
@@eduardoserpa1682 hmmm. Exactly, too much world building reduced the quality also there were literal moments where Lelouch just pulls a super iq move and you're wondering, where was the fucking build up??? Like how did you actually make this work or know about this?? I have no idea.
Code geass I couldn't finish the first season because Lelouch accidentally ordering the girl was one of the dumbest things ever. Coming from a "smart" anime. Also the chess was so bad
I thought the show was phenomenal up until L’s death. Especially the strategy Light used to forget everything to throw L off the trail and then spending a bunch of time chasing after Kira with L just to finally kill L. I loved that so much. I simply just didn’t ever care for N and thought the way Light lost in the end was so stupid and ended up hurting every character involved. Lastly I don’t remember the police officer getting mad at his girlfriend scene like you did. I remember it happening where the girlfriend was wanting to help but the police officer knew it was extremely dangerous to get involved and wanted to protect her from getting involved, which to me was both good character writing as it shows just how much he cares about her that he would rather her stay safe than catch Kira and a good opportunity for some exposition on the girl. I agree with pretty much everything you said about the series except for your take on that scene.
How was the way how light lost in the end stupid?
@@lampad4549 what I mean was that it was neither a clever strategy that N enacted to catch light nor was it lights arrogance and over trust in himself that led him to make a mistake allowing N to win. Rather it was a third party character who had a very simple job, yet failed to follow lights simple instructions. What it felt like the lesson at the end was is that light was right all along, he’s deserving of god status and is above everyone else. He should not trusted someone else. In other words the mistake that made him lose was not his own hubris, but a moment where he lacked hubris.
Death Note has been that story that the more I fiction I consume, I less and less I like it. Because when it's one of the first works you watch, it feels like one of the greatest show ever that went bad after L's death.
Yeah. I feel the same way
The opposite for me lol. Cause the more I read One Piece, the higher my standard gets leaving other shows/books/mangas unsatisfactory.
Well, why do you think so many fairly mediocre anime are regarded as masterpieces for so long? People get in touch with the media while young, don't watch much else besides it or things like that, and then when once in a while something does the bare minimum that other good stories are expected to have they flip out thinking they're seeing a masterpiece unfold... When they just are really seeing an alright story.
Jujutsu Kaisen being one of the most recent and obvious examples. Overhyped as hell just because a good studio animated it, while the source material is straight trash.
@@LightningRaven42 Yeah, the "it's a masterpiece" statement is straight BS unless you've seen plenty more works to compare said "masterpiece".
@@LightningRaven42 jujutsu kaisen was very well know before the anime so......
Also: please, stop talking about what is trash and what is not, your a nobody on internet
As somebody who thoroughly enjoyed Death Note, I absolutely understand all of your issues.
Correct me is I'm wrong, but from what I remember the author wanted to end the series much earlier but the editor/ company wanted him to make the series longer which is why the series ended so messily.
The author literally has another manga series about two teenagers becoming Manga-ka's and in one arc they literally begged their boss to let them end the series the way they wanted even though the the editors/boss wanted them to continue the series. lol, I guess the author wanted to make a commentary on how annoyed he was on how Manga companies tends to neglect making a good ending and only focusing on making a series as long as possible.
I loved the whole anime I didn’t mind the last half of the show. I enjoyed every bit of it
lets goo! i was waiting for this rant review since you posted on twitter.
I don't recall the show ever painting Light as likeable outside of maybe the first episode and the episodes where he no longer has his memory. He is portrayed as being a completely manipulative sociopath with a god complex. Characters in the show might like him, and that's understandable since they don't know his inner thoughts like we do and he puts up a good facade.
But yeah, the show really drops in quality, for me it was in the last 1/3 of the show... after they killed Light. I liked Misa well enough. By the way, the live action movie (Japanese version not english) has a much better ending...
Id love seeing you review Code Geass.
Agreed I'd say it had one of the most iconic ending in anime for me when I watched it (I don't know if I'd hold the same opinion today, years later). But yeah worth a watch for sure.
I am guessing it would be a similar reaction. Intrigued at first, but dissapointed in the end.
nah prob. even worse review ngl :D
He did Dune, right? So he's basically already seen the original God Emperor/Zero Requiem story, and probably wouldn't like CG's derivative ending.
Ooooh, good suggestion for him to watch.
The biggest crime of Death Note part 2 (that isn't directly related to its flaws from part 1), in my eyes, is setting up M and N... and then doing nothing of significance with either. N is just L2, and M just... hangs around the sidelines being a crime. The idea of L having two successors who have to work together is interesting on paper, but it also doesn't *leave* the paper. Fails to materialize in the narrative.
Honestly this is pretty much the consensus from the fans.
The biggest reason for Death Note’s popularity is it’s a great gateway for people who don’t consume anime/manga.
Yeah I'm thinking pre-one piece daniel would've liked this better. My first was death note so i liked it till the end but now I've consumed many mangas, i think it fails in comparison.
We gotta have a balance, after L's death, it is true that DN went downhill BUT, we can't just forget about everything from the beginning to L's death or diminish it, because DN in that interval of chapters was a masterpiece imo. So no, DN is not just popular for being a gateway anime, it is more than that.
@@carlosdanielcalderonmontoy3723 I'm not saying it's terrible by any means. But I simply don't think it'd have anywhere near the popularity it does, if it wasn't something that is constantly consumed by new anime/manga watchers/readers.
@@YourBlackLocal I understand, you got a point, but DN is that popular because the first half was that good.
@@carlosdanielcalderonmontoy3723 Of course, again nobodies denying that.
The lead up to ending sucked but I thought the last episode was a very fitting end to light: he loses is an embarrassing, pitiful way, especially in the manga. So I really doubt Misa's obsession was supposed to anything other than extremely unhealthy.
You should watch Ping Pong The Animation it's Profound and have a lot to say, the art style can be a bit distracting the first time you watch it, but it'll grown on you.
My favorite show
If you're interested, there's two live action Japanese movies that cut out a lot of the fluff and overtly explanatory dialog. It however has a really cool alternate ending where L actually wins and catches Light, but at a great personal cost. The two movies are really worth the watch just to see, whats in my opinion, a much more satisfying ending.
Absolutely. I brought those movies after my sister made me watch them (before I was through the first half of the anime!). I almost stopped watching after L's cheap death but persevered out of morbid curiosity. To me those movies are the real story (in my little world)
I don't agree with the fact that it got much worse after ep 12,in my opinion it's after L died
In Japan, there are two live-action movies based on Death Note... and guess what? They cut Near out entirely (saving him for a spinoff movie) and have the second movie end in a way that combines L's death scene from the manga with the actual end of the manga/anime's story. It's honestly my favorite version of the narrative for that reason.
I can't disclose what I'd do with the Death Note. Maybe I'll get one some day, then all my plans would be written here, wouldn't they? I'm a step ahead of you, goblin-san.
Fun fact about the writer (+the artist) of Death Note. They later on created a manga called Bakuman which is a story about two guys (also writer + artist duo, just like themselves) aspiring and becoming mangaka in Shonen Jump. Minor spoiler for that manga: The protagonists there created a successful manga and had an ending thought out for it, but the publisher desperately wanted them to try to find a continuation for the story. In that manga, the protagonists stayed true to their story and finished it where it was intended, because they valued the quality of the story over milking the audience and ruining what they were passionate about.
Sounds like they too regret the decision they made with Death Note.
I loved the show up to the death of L. At that point the show went incredibly downhill. Completely agree with you there.
It's worth noting that the ending of the anime is different from the manga. Namely the manner in which Light dies is slightly different (and also makes Ryuk a lot cooler, imo). And it's a lot more cathartic if you hate Light. I'd recommend checking out the manga's final chapters just for that. It doesn't solve the issues of the show, but at least it fixes this one thing.
Agree with you the whole way. When I was a first time watcher and didn't know anything about the show beside its basic premise, I quickly felt just how much the writing collapsed as the show goes on after those dozen episodes. And I don't know if this is a popular opinion, but I honestly felt that L, one of the driving force behind the show's success, didn't get the send-off he deserves. The way he lost felt too... easy, at least for me. It pissed me off even more seeing how stupid Light become the episodes after that, so I decided to stop watching and never looked back. No regrets.
I think that was actually kind of the point though... L actually planned on dying, just to catch Light. (So it literally WAS too easy-because that was L's final trap, for Light; because L knew that his death would compound Light's overconfidence, to Light's detriment...as well as confirm Light's identity as Kira to L, which L was literally dying to know for sure.)
But maybe that was just what I read into it, myself.🤷♀️ I should rewatch it again, soon; it's been too long. Loll
Good review, I agree with almost everything. I'd give it a slightly higher score because it does entertain quite a bit.
If I had a death note, I'd keep things subtle. I wouldn't kill whoever the media tells me is a 'bad guy' but things like confirmed killers at large, violent escapees from extremely high security prisons, and some terrorists would be fair game to have a little accident or shot while being apprehended without hurting anyone.
Unless I was actually in law enforcement, I don't think I'd make it a crusade. Light's flaw is that he doing it for his ego, not justice. You have to judge all but very rare cases in detail and carefully weigh the evidence. Not go nuts because media. I'd also change the death note's cover to a new binding and burn the endless pages as I wrote on them. One more layer of security. Sans the shinigami, I would be untraceable.
And if a few of those criminals happened to stow large amounts of untraceable money or winning lottery tickets in just such a place before dying... lucky me.
I remember back when this show was weekly, everyone was absolutely in love with it in the first half of the show, and then when the notable death happens, everyone in my friend was just angry and upset for like 3 months until it finished
The second half is slightly better than it looks on a first watch, but only just and it is a real disappointment they didn't keep the tight story from the first half.
If I remember correctly, the live action movies (the japanese ones not the netflix garbage fire) they actually had the ending where L catches Light and it feels like the ending the creators originally wanted
Could you try Neon Genesis Evangelion? It changed the anime industry forever and the reason we get high quality anime. It has absurdism and surrealism, so you might like it.
Note: Its lore is just a bait to get u interested, its real focus are its characters. And it does not spoon feed you the lore at ALL, so if you think that you will watch this show for its lore and world, then it will disappoint you.
I second this
I absolutely second this
YES
I don't think he will like NGE - too many annoying stereotype characters. Maybe he might get into the four movies, as it safes him time. /shrug
I think Anno is so focused on character psychology that it made it divisive, but I really like his show don't tell approach. The rebuilds and the manga add bit more lore though, but the characters and themes are the forefront.
Since you've shown some interest into exploring the world of anime, I'm practically obligated to suggest my favourite. Not only my favourite anime, but also my favourite piece of media I've ever consumed: "Re: Zero - Starting Life in Another World". In contrast to all the shows you've watched so far which are based on manga, Re:Zero is actually based on a light novel and it's about a 17 year old shut-in who suddenly gets transported into a magical world. There are currently 2 seasons out with 25 episodes each.
I honestly want to see you watch Code Geass now,
It’s similar to death note and very enjoyable with the big problem of starting out great, slowly going downhill but still being good, nosediving into confusing but mildly enjoyable mediocrity for about 3 eps, then getting to the brilliant last 5’ve eps. I personally think you’d enjoy it more than death note, but don’t read the manga of it.
I also recommend Worm-by Wildbow, it’s a popular web serial I personally love and has nothing to do with death note.
Good vid.
You didn’t even mention the music….which for me is one of my favorite aspects.
Perhaps you can look into Code Geass? It has similar vibes to Death Note in the way it has a highly productive, intelligent student who seeks a better world. But in contrast, this Anime goes into full blown war. In my opinion Code Geass' story is better than Death Notes, it has however a shameless amount of fanservice which is just sad. It is still worth a view in my opinion though, especially if you like the intellectual battles between L and Kira.
With Code Geass, I feel it suffers from the opposite problem. With Death Note, almost every chess move is overly explained to us (sometimes to the show's detriment). Whereas Code Geass almost consistently writes itself into corners, but pulls itself back out without explaining anything about how some of Lelouch's actions are possible.
went into code geass for the supposed similar "intellectual battles between L and Kira". found none. overall show was pretty meh with buncha intolerable characters. people say misa misa was annoying. that's p much every character in cg.
@@lightlawliet3526 you got lied to bud. I've been very careful to tell people that CG is similar to DN in the sense of "super intelligent high school kid is given a supernatural power and uses it to plot world domination." The only other parallel is that the director of CG deliberately said that the ending was supposed to be a redemptive ending in response to DN's tragic ending.
What you have to realize about anime and manga is that there is more involved than just the original creators intentions. Maybe you should read Bakuman next. I think it'd be a perfect followup and is kind of a direct answer to this series by the same creatives as Death Note.
Let's appreciate Daniel for being honest and truthful, guys.
You barely get to see people like him and Merphy Napier cover anime/manga
with this much thought and detail put onto a review.
Yeah verbalizing subtext in anime is a sometimes awkward translation from manga. In a manga hearing the characters thoughts or reactions may be necessary to understanding what’s going on, and anime has adopted that style. I’ve gotten used to it as a stylistic choice of the medium. However, I still think effective manga writing shows you what’s going on rather than having to tell you even with still images
As another suggestion for an anime to watch - as if you need more recommendations, cough - I recently finished ODDTAXI and found it surprisingly good, far better than I went in expecting.
One thing I've seen praised a lot is how natural the dialogue sounds (in the original Japanese - I understand it's being dubbed and I have no clue if that will be half as good.)
Yeah, I've heard good things about it. I wanna check it out now.
The thing i dont undertan about ODDTAXI is how it manege to be so borring and interesting at the same time. Its amaizing
ODDTAXI - you weird chimera of a anime. Do I hate you? But your story lines are so compelling and the characters so delicate. Do I love you? Your protagonist has the charisma of a block of wood. Your art work gives me hives, but the character design is so fresh and strange. ODDTAXI - you are the red bean matcha green bubble tea with mouse of anime.
It's a solid 7/10, but that's about it
Good format, I agree with your points, and thanks for getting me back into reading. Your joy over reading is infectious, and I'm loving all these book recommendations!
Day One of asking Daniel to watch Violet Evergarden.
A man of culture I see
Last guy who did something similar got Daniel to decide not ever watching the show he was promoting, so watch out
I highly recommend you read bakuman it's made by the same two guys who wrote and drew the Death Note manga and it will 100% give you a new look on the medium. It also showed their struggle with writing Death Note. It's basically a manga about mangaka(people who make manga) and it really gives you a solid look into the life of a mangaka and their struggles.
I'd like you to review something less "mainstream" in the anime /manga mediums. They're are so many gems that aren't "mainstream" 😭
Only issues I guess is the video would probably fail.
If I had a deathnote there may be a few politicians that may get a sudden heart attack. To avoid fighting I refrain to say who.
Light is the VILLAIN! Thank you
I recommend you read bastard on webtoon. I recommend you read it on your phone vs the website. The webtoon is like deathnote, but without the supernatural element. There is no show for it, only a webtoon that you can read. I really recommend it.
Thank you, so many people think it's amazing and ground breaking. Has an amazing premise that is poorly executed in my opinion.
One thing that id like to point out is that one big reason why death note is so good and a cult classic is due to its artistic aesthetics, a manga is a experience both visually as story wise, im pretty sure that for a manga to survive the art is more important at the start of its run... Actually there is another manga called bakuman that pretty much tells the story of 2 graduates that try to make it as authors and how hard it is to make a manga good enough to become a best seller (that being death note)
I understand your dissapointment, but for me good things of this show are much bigger than bad things. I'm talking about music, directing, athmosphere, characters and themes.
Couldn’t agree more Daniel, they just didn’t know how to stick the landing. Gonna hit u w a recommendation for next anime review, give neon ghenisis evangelion a watch I think it’ll make u scratch ur head in a good way! Keep it up man love the vids
You should try Stein's Gate and Code geass Daniel they are both amazing
Steins gate does not hold up well at all. I dont think we should recommend this to non weebs
Steins;Gate is great, but Daniel would have to push through the first 12 or so Episodes to get to the good part. Not to say those first 12 are bad, only that they're pretty slow.
he prob. wouldnt like it! ngl
@@leonardotukiman8253 Steins;Gate holds up, it's Code Geass that's questionable if it holds up, unlike Death Note that starts slow and slowly descends, Code Geass is a rollercoaster in quality, up and down, up and down.
@@gracjanlekston134 Idk i have rewatched these two with peoplr not familiar with anime. Many found hyouin annoying and while I found revelations great when I was younger, I found it to be a let down now
On the other hand, people forgive a lot of the ups and downs of code geass with the ending.
Just an opinion, but i would put my bet that daniel would prefer code geass more than steins gate.
You asked earlier this week where your channel should go with content. Here. It should go here.
I wanted more here. For you to talk again about your transforming opinion as you watched from ep.13 onward. I'd have liked to hear what your ideal death note story arc looks like. Basically, goblin script doctor.
In general, videos that document your transforming views on a piece of media would be awesome
Can we just take a second to talk about how cool the second opening is though? I came myself when Ryuk caught the bullet in sync with the music
The same writer and artist made another manga called Bakuman and I love it for its premise of showing manga creators making manga and their struggle trying to publish their work.
(Altho it has a romance subplot I kinda hate low-key but I still like the series alot)
Wow, the contrast between both reviews here is wild. I will say I actually kind of do like the final episode/chapter, but the rest of the back half is just a mess
I Second that.
Death Note from chapters 1 to 25 was a total masterpiece!
100% recommend checking out another manga by the same creative team, Bakuman. It's almost an autobiographical story of being a writer/artist duo and trying to break into the highly competitive manga industry, only to have a sudden rise to stardom (with an in-universe parallel for Death Note specifically) and not knowing how to deal with the expectations and intense schedule that demands.
One part celebration of the art form of comics, one part cautionary tale, one part bitter catharsis from the creators over their past failures.
I think that I rate death note so high (8/10) mainly because of nostalgia since it was my first anime and unlike you i liked misa's part in this story but i do agree that the show is kind of unwatchable after l's death . The only good think about that part of the series is that light died by the end which was a cool ending. BTW an anime that i think you would like is vinland saga it's a masterpiece in my opinion and even the manga is great too . Vinland Saga is about vikings and a boy trying to kill the murderer of his father honourably in a duel. It has great characters and story.
Totally agree... it was such a promising start and then just petered out.
Also as a random aside I like how L just suddenly announces that offscreen he's had a skyscraper built for the five or so of them to work in...
The manga goes a bit less of the rails. It still dips in quality after L dies but it manages better than the show.
Basically, everyone likes the first 12 episodes. Fans are split on whether Misa's introduction and the amnesia arc are terrible or the best part of the show (I personally am in the latter camp). And no one thinks Season 2 should have happened.
Daniel reviewing Death Note: i wish the subtext was left as subtext
Daniel reviewing Berserk: generic tough guy MC
I know you revoked your original review but i just thought it was a funny joke for those who understand
On the last video I mentioned I was nervous about you meeting a certain character (Misa), and hearing your opinion her I am not at all surprised. I can imagine many people would have a hard time not stopping upon her introduction. But, yeah, I agree with the sentiment that it starts strong and ends pretty weak; and also respect and agree with most of your criticisms. I do think the final episode was great, though.